24 Hour Fitness Works Out with MorphoTrak Finger Geometry

24 Hour Fitness, a U.S. fitness chain and a health club, announced a new convenient, secure and environmentally-friendly cardless check-in option for members. 24 Hour Fitness has partnered with MorphoTrak, a provider of biometric technology to offer cardless check-in for its members at all 420 clubs by the end of 2010.

"Our cardless check-in system is available in more than 40 percent of our clubs and we've received positive feedback from our members who have already enrolled," said Carl Liebert, CEO, 24 Hour Fitness.

Once enrolled in the cardless check-in system, 24 Hour Fitness members simply place their finger on a reader and enter a personally selected 10-digit numerical code to gain club access. The technology only measures the distance between a few distinct points on the finger that are unique to each person and assigns a number based on these distances. Neither 24 Hour Fitness nor MorphoTrak store actual fingerprints, nor can the data stored be recreated into fingerprint images. Members who choose not to use the cardless check-in option can instead check in with a government-issued identification card, such as a driver's license.

"We are pleased to partner with 24 Hour Fitness to provide the largest consumer implementation to date of a biometric access management solution," said Daniel Vassy, President and CEO, MorphoTrak. "We are confident that 24 Hour Fitness members will enjoy the benefit of this technologically advanced and secure check-in solution."

24 Hour Fitness conducted extensive testing and pilot programs for the new cardless check-in system before officially implementing it in clubs. The company began testing cardless check-in in 2006 and conducted the final pilot in November 2009, incorporating member feedback into the national rollout.